The Calm Before the Storm

Basketball is BACK!

I've got a big newsletter coming tomorrow with predictions for all 81 games on the schedule, but first, some small updates.

There's a master schedule up for every game. That'll update as we go along and give you extra data on each and every game played across the state. All of them.

There's also matchup data for every game being played tomorrow, but it isn't all that helpful just yet. But it will be!

You'll notice that teams are already ranked. We start with last year's final rankings and go from there. It's very rare that the landscape completely resets. The good teams tend to stay good and the bad teams tend to stay bad. This prevents the Model from overreacting to early games. For example, a couple of years ago, Cape Elizabeth got blown out on Opening Night. Without the previous year of data, we'd have worked under the assumption they were bad for a while. Turns out they were their usual selves. Go figure.

Anyway, start your subscription. Or turn it back on. Whatever works for you.

Some updates from around the state...

Mountain Valley is looking to get back into 11-man football.

If you're looking for games to watch this weekend, you can't beat this deal at the ACC.

The Ashland girls are the latest program to fall victim to the numbers crunch.

There's only one game, so we'll do this quick.

Pine Tree kicks things off early as they travel up to Auburn to take on St. Dom's in girls basketball.

As far as I can tell, it isn't streaming.

Just like with the rankings, the Model is making a prediction on this based entirely on last season.

Remember, this isn't DraftKings and you shouldn't be gambling on Class D girls basketball. Pine Tree is the favorite by 10.4 points.

That's it for now. Tomorrow's the big day!